Take a piece of white, or tinted, or silver paper, exactly ten and a
half inches square. Fold it double diagonally. Fold it double again.
Fold it double once more.
You will now have a triangular-shaped form of eight thicknesses. Now
lay this folded piece on a pine table, or on a smooth piece of pine
board. Next, lay evenly over it, so that it will fit exactly, the
"pattern of transparency," or an exact tracing from it. When so
placed, secure them firmly to the board by pins driven in at each
corner. Now, with a very sharp pen-knife follow and cut _through to
the board_ the lines of the pattern, so as to cut out all the portions
that show black in the design. When this is all done, pull out
the pins, open your folded paper, and you will have a square form
beautifully figured in open-work. It should be laid between two sheets
of white paper and carefully pressed with a hot iron, and then it can
be lined with black or fancy tissue paper, and hung against a pane in
the window as a "transparency;" or you may use it as a picture-frame,
inserting an engraving or photograph in the center.
The original, from which our pattern is taken, was cut during the late
war by a young Union soldier while in Libby prison.
[Illustration: PATTERN OF PAPER TRANSPARENCY.]